At a Glance.
- The FCC stores net neutrality rules.
- Standardizing the development of artificial intelligence.
The FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules.
The News.
Last Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to restore the net neutrality rules. The vote was split 3-2 along party lines. With the net neutrality rules reinstated, broadband providers are now banned from blocking or throttling internet traffic to websites as a way to incentivize sites to pay additional fees. With the reinstatement of net neutrality, broadband has now been moved under the jurisdiction of the FCC as it is now classified as a telecommunications service. Additionally, this vote allows the FCC to demand broadband providers report and respond to outages.
With this vote, the FCC Chair, Jessica Rosenworcel, stated that after the pandemic “it became clear that…you need broadband to have a fair shot at digital age success” and continued saying, "broadband is now an essential service.”
The Knowledge.
For context, net neutrality was created during the Obama administration in 2014 and was designed to prevent internet service providers (ISPs) from being able to filter content or throttle access to sites if the site owner did not pay premium fees to the provider. When originally established, these rules were heavily supported by both consumer and free speech groups. However, in 2017, the Trump Administration repealed these rules citing that the rules were not needed and were an example of unnecessary governmental overreach. In response to the Trump Administration repealing these laws, several states, including California, created their own net neutrality laws.
With these rules reinstated, broadband providers have signaled their intent to sue and overturn the net neutrality rules. Jonathan Spalter, the president of a broadband lobbying group, USTelecom, stated that his organization will “pursue all available options, including in the courts.” Additionally, many Republican lawmakers have responded to this vote citing concerns that net neutrality would harm the growth of the telecommunications industry.
The Impact.
With the net neutrality rules being reinstated, internet service providers will now be barred from being able to throttle access to sites for consumers artificially. While ISPs have signaled their intent to challenge these new regulations, this process will take some time, and is unclear what the outcome will be. In the meantime, US citizens will most likely not see any noticeable changes in their internet browsing; however, if anything internet browsing speeds should increase when accessing sites.
While these changes are less likely to impact the general consumer, the net neutrality rules should provide small businesses and sites a more fair and equitable market as ISPs will no longer be allowed to throttle access to their site if they did not or could not afford to pay their fees.
A Commentary on Standardizing Emerging Technologies.
In this week’s CAVEAT podcast, Cameron Kerry was interviewed to discuss his recent publication centered on the criticality of building cooperation when developing new international standards for emerging technologies. Cameron Kerry, a distinguished fellow with the Brookings Institution, focuses on researching emerging technologies and the debate surrounding privacy.
The Publication.
In this publication, Kerry discusses the current state of international standards development and what steps can be taken to improve these efforts as nations begin preparing themselves for emerging technologies. Kerry examines the United States (US), the European Union (EU), and China examining how each nation approaches the standard development process. As Kerry discusses each of these nations, he highlights how each government is involved in developing standards, such as with the US utilizing an industry-led system that relies on establishing standards through voluntary consensus or with China which utilizes a state-driven approach that organizes stakeholders to create standards.
However, aside from analyzing the current development process, Kerry discusses how emerging technologies have created a new opportunity to reinvent the development process to better address the significant societal implications these technologies pose.
The Impact.
Throughout this research paper, Kerry discusses the importance of international cooperation when developing new emerging technology standards. Kerry comprehensively discusses the impacts of technologies, like AI, and analyzes the current state of relevant standards. From his analysis, Kerry discusses where the current standard landscape is and what steps need to be taken to improve this landscape. While it is not feasible to discuss every one of Kerry’s recommendations in full detail within this newsletter, he does highlight several key strategies. These strategies include:
- Broadening Standards Development Organization Leadership
- Increasing Government Support
- Aligning International Standards Development
Kerry breaks down each of these strategies further discussing numerous recommendations. These individual recommendations involve a variety of solutions including increasing funding for organizations, such as the US National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), increasing transparency as standards are being developed, and collaborating on research and development initiatives. While this newsletter only briefly discussed Kerry’s research paper, CAVEAT will be releasing a special edition newsletter in the coming days that will take a deeper dive into this subject analyzing the importance of standards further as well as taking some time to discuss some of Kerry’s response to a series of follow-up questions from the interview released today.
Other Noteworthy Stories.
Biden Administration reaches another multi-billion dollar deal to boss semiconductor manufacturing capabilities.
What: During a trip to Syracuse, New York (NY), President Biden announced a new six billion dollar deal with Micron to boost semiconductor chip manufacturing in the US.
Why: On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced another multi-billion dollar deal to increase domestic chip manufacturing capabilities. This latest investment will support the construction of two manufacturing hubs in Clay, NY, and Boise, Idaho. The manufacturing center in Clay will be centered on developing leading-edge dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips whereas the Boise facility will aim to have a high-volume manufacturing approach that will produce DRAM chips. This funding was secured through the CHIPS and Science Act, a bill that the administration has used to broker similar deals with other major manufacturers like Intel and Samsung.
This latest deal is expected to generate $125 billion between New York and Idaho over the next two decades and add over 70,000 jobs. This is now the fifth deal that the Biden administration has brokered using funding provided by the CHIPS and Science Act and US citizens should expect similar deals to be announced over the coming months. With these deals, the administration is looking to decrease the nation’s dependence on international chip manufacturing while simultaneously strengthening domestic supply chains.
FTC awards over five million in refunds to Ring customers regarding privacy settlement.
What: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has begun to distributing over five million in refunds to Amazon Ring customers.
Why: On Tuesday, the FTC began enforcing a settlement between Ring and consumers over claims that Ring did not protect consumer privacy. This settlement traces back to a 2023 complaint that stated Ring allowed both employees and contractors to access records from the company’s product. This footage was then allegedly used to train algorithms without user consent. The FTC called these privacy lapses “egregious violations of users’ privacy.”
With this announcement, the FTC announced that it would send these refunds to over 115,000 customers who owned Ring devices.
New US National Seucrity Memo Aims to secure critical infrastructure.
What: President Biden signs new national security memorandum
Why: On Tuesday, President Biden signed a new national security memorandum. This new memorandum aims to boost the resilience of critical US infrastructure. With this signing, the White House stated that it was launching a “comprehensive effort to protect US infrastructure against all threats and hazards, current and future.” With this new memorandum, the directive empowers Homeland Security to launch a government-wide effort that will aim to secure critical infrastructure and will require the agency to submit regular risk management plans that will summarize these efforts. Critical infrastructure areas include sectors such as utilities, aviation, rail systems, maritime, pipelines, water, and sewage organizations among others.
This latest memorandum comes after a report in February stated that Chinese hackers have been taking steps to target and cripple critical infrastructure for over five years. This multi-year campaign, known as “Volt Typhoon,” is said to have been able to infiltrate networks related to many of these critical infrastructure sectors.
AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile issued $200M FCC fine over sharing user location data.
What: The FCC fines four mobile carriers $200 million in total due to illegally sharing customer location data.
Why: On Monday, the FCC issued this fine to four mobile carriers after concluding an investigation that discovered these companies were illegally sharing access to consumer location data. This investigation ties back to initial allegations levied in 2020 under the Trump administration stating that these wireless carriers were not protecting user location data. After this investigation, the FCC concluded that each carrier sold access to location information to “aggregators.” These “aggregators” then sold this location data to other third parties. FCC Chair, Jessica Rosenworcel, stated with this announcement that “these carriers failed to protect the information entrusted to them” and continued to state that “the commission remains committed to holding all carriers accountable and making sure they fulfill their obligations to their customers as stewards of this most private data.”
T-Mobile received the biggest fine of eighty million dollars with its subsidiary Sprint receiving a twelve million dollars fine. AT&T was fined fifty-seven million dollars, and Verizon was fined seven million dollars.